Ayn Rand on Families & Children

Conservative thinking is a "God, family, tradition swamp

Conservative thinking in this country is a cesspool. Ayn Rand called it "the God, family, tradition swamp." She was too kind. It should be noted that Rand would never have supported either Ron Paul or Rand Paul for office,
for the same reason she rejected Ron Reagan, "Abortion is a moral right--which should be left to the sole discretion of the woman involved; morally, nothing other than her wish in the matter is to be considered."

Morality of birth control is rights of parents to happiness

The capacity to procreate is merely a potential which man is not obligated to actualize. The choice to have children or not is morally optional. Nature endows man with a variety of potentials--and it is his mind that must decide which capacities he
chooses to exercise, according to his own hierarchy of rational goals and values.

To an animal, the rearing of its young is a matter of temporary cycles. To man, it is a lifelong responsibility--a grave responsibility that must not be undertaken
causelessly, thoughtlessly or accidentally.

In regard to the moral aspects of birth control, the primary right involved is not the "right" of an unborn child, nor of the family, nor of society, nor of God. The primary right is one which--in today's
public clamor on the subject--few, if any, voices have had the courage to uphold: the right of man and woman to their own life and happiness--the right not to be regarded as the means to any end.

Essence of femininity is hero-worship of masculinity

For a woman qua woman, the essence of femininity is hero-worship--the desire to look up to man. "To look up" does not mean dependence, obedience or anything implying inferiority. It means an intense kind of admiration. Intellectually and morally, i.e.,
as a human being, she has to be his equal; then the object of her worship is specifically his masculinity, not any human virtue she might lack.

This does not mean that a feminine woman feels or projects hero-worship for any and every individual man;
as human beings, many of them may, in fact, be her inferiors. Her worship is an abstract emotion for the metaphysical concept of masculinity as such--which she experiences fully and concretely only for the man she loves. The higher her view of
masculinity, the more severely demanding her standards. It means that she never loses the awareness of her own sexual identity and theirs. It means that a properly feminine woman does not treat men as if she were their pal, sister, mother--or leader.